Man accused of setting wife on fire seeks bail

PESHAWAR, April 14,2005: A man charged with setting his wife on fire has requested a local court to order his release on bail.

Amir Habib, of Gulabkhana, was arrested a few days ago after police had recorded the statement of his wife Fouzia Habib, who is in the burns ward of the Khyber Teaching Hospital.

While Ms Fouzia has been fighting for the life with 55 per cent burn injuries, another victim of domestic violence, Shakila Bibi, expired on Monday in the same hospital. She was laid to rest at Akbarpura village in Nowshera district.

An NGO, Women Awareness in the Globalisation of Modern Era (Wagme), has constituted a panel of lawyers headed by Advocate Wilayat Shah Bukhari to take up the case of Fouzai Habib.

The panel has filed their powers of attorney on behalf of Fouzia Bibi in the court of Judicial Magistrate Shoaib Khan. The court will take up for hearing the bail petition of Amir Habib, who is in prison, on Thursday.

Fouzia Habib, 27, has alleged that her husband, with the help of his mother, had sprinkled spirit and set her on fire. However, the husband refuted her claim, stating that she had tried to commit suicide.

She said she could not bear a child for four years, which was the major reason of the violence. The executive director of Wagme, Younas Durrani, told Dawn that they were having audio recording of the statement of Ms Fouzia, in which she had clearly accused her husband and mother-in-law of committing the offence.

Ms Nighat Kamdar of the NGO, AWARD, who is looking after the case of Shakila Bibi, said they had been trying to persuade the Punjab government to register a murder case against the husband of Ms Shakila, who was burnt in Rawalpindi on April 1.

She said the NGO was having her video statement, which could be used as a dying declaration. Meanwhile, the indifference of the federal and NWFP governments towards the two cases has been criticized by various NGOs.

Representatives of the NGOs have expressed concern over what they termed the continuous indifference adopted by the two governments, especially about the non-registration of the murder case of Ms Shakila and providing support to Ms Fouzia.
Source: Dawn
Date:4/14/2005